GTA V: 9 Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

It still feels like forever until GTA V finally hits out shores on September 17th, but time is quickly ticking away, and what better way to pass a few minutes more than by looking back at the franchise’s inestimable legacy?

Grand Theft Auto is an absolute juggernaut of an entertainment commodity, proving to be one of the most profitable and popular entertainment enterprises ever undertaken; its name is known even to those who have never picked up a controller, and its ripples of influence are felt all throughout pop culture.

However, there are probably a few things you don’t know about GTA – here are 9 crazy facts that will blow your mind…

9. GTA Exists Because Of A Glitch In A Different Game

GTA would not be the behemoth that it is today if not for a happy accident while developing a prior game called Race ‘N Chase. This game had a similar style to what eventually became GTA, with the idea being that you play as cops or robbers, either performing the robberies or stopping the perps. When playing as a robber, the glitch that changed everything caused the AI police cars to try and run you off the road rather than actually “bust” you.

This was popular enough with testers that the model of the game was re-worked to better suit this dynamic, and so GTA was born! Just imagine; if that glitch had never happened, we might all be clamouring for Race ‘N Chase V this autumn…or not.

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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.

It’s staggering to find a game reach this size???? Only 50… What if I told you there’s a game that is the size of Great Britain…. Yes the country a game that big that the whole land matches to that of Great Britain. (Some people say it’s TWICE as big)… The game I’m talking about is The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall…

Not sure if you only include the mountainside, but Test Drive: Unlimited is (land-wise) the island of Oahu, which is 597 square miles. Cut in down to 1/20th of that for actual playable/rendered area and its still slightly bigger than GTA. The longest/circle-island race is 125 miles or so, and takes 45-50 mins to complete, averaging about 180mph/300kph. To be fair it is VERY sparsely populated (almost a ghost-town version of the island) with anything so it is much smaller, content wise.

If it is just a competition of pure size then as far as I know Minecraft wins hands down with a size of 4.7 quadrillion km2, which is 9.3 million times the surface of the Earth. However unlike both these games, GTV5 actually has things to see and do in that map, and that is what really counts.

50 square miles, eh? thats pretty big… but what if I told you there was a console game, a bit old in fact, that exists in a world the size of the state of connecticut? Over 100 times larger than this new gta V game will be…

why are people trying to compare the size and scope of this games map to other older games. right now no other game can match gta 5 simple as that. daggerfall although it is roughly the size of GB theirs a reason you don’t see Bethesda making there games that big anymore to many other elements of there game suffered. TDU 2 is a racing game the map is all street you cant interact with anything else other then your house the rest is all decorative. the reason this games map is such a big deal is the fact that what your seeing in the screenshots and trailers is going to be 100% intractable. if you want to go stand on top of the fib building you can if you wanna go stand in the middle of the dessert you can and while your doing it the graphics are gonna look amazing andthe game world will be “alive” in a way no other game is now or in the past.

Doesn’t count. That game had random generation, with no actual mapping of the world. It may have had the most area if you calculated the total of each part of the generator, but that doesn’t mean it was all there at once.
And besides, GTA cannot be compared to TES. GTA allows you to do literally almost anything you’re mind can think of, and this is that much more evident in GTA V. TES is equally great, but not for the same reasons.

Cole no you can’t i don’t see any bomber jets or nukes or being able to have a dog? TES you can own a pet/family in Certain games “anything your mind” can think of statement i disagree with you on because its actually Limited to what the Game Developers allow you to do which is also the same thing Said about TES and GTA but ATLEAST TES allows mods and able to expand from where they should of done in the first place.but not many gaming devs allows mods provided they don’t affect anothers “Game play”

Guys, stop complaining about the stupid map sizes. I can bet half of you are just pulling figures and games that you think seem big out your ass.

I love all of the GTA fact lists you can find, because it is the most controversial game series of all time. Though I’ve heard this fact before, I still can’t believe how devious and ingenious Rockstar was to buy negative press! Very risky move, but it obviously worked out in the end.

Oh, and you may want to add this fact. I only know a little about it, and my source may not be entirely right, but there was supposedly a 6-year-old who missed his bus to school, so he took his mother’s car. He then drove 60 mph down a busy freeway (with cops in pursuit). I don’t know when he pulled over, but supposedly he said he had learned to drive in GTA. Now, I don’t know what installment of GTA he was playing, but the only bit of driving skill GTA teaches me is how NOT to drive.
Hell of an intelligent kid, though.

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looking back on this now after the game has been out for a while…still wow. And wow especially at #3. but im not clear on what #6. And i agree with tim, maybe the title of this article should have been changed. but overall enjoyable list